Think our local government struggles are tough?

Okay, admittedly, they are. There will be a lot of real pain in 2010 as schools and counties respond to tighter state (and possibly Federal) dollars.

To get a taste of just what might be at stake, consider the travails of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Here’s the lowdown from NPR.

As a cost-saving measure, Colorado Springs is turning off streetlights. Flipping the switch on about 1/3 of the city’s 24,512 streetlights is expected to save $1.245 million in electricity. But that’s just a down payment on a $28 million budget gap for 2010.

Perhaps the most noticeable change for Colorado Springs’ 400,000 residents will be in parks, where budgets have been slashed by nearly 75 percent.

“We’ve taken all the trash cans out. We’re not going to be doing any litter collections in the parks,” says Larry Small, vice mayor for Colorado Springs. “We’re hoping the citizens will pack it out themselves.”

All the restrooms have been closed. There’ll be very little watering, and crews will mow just once a month instead of weekly.

The city even trimmed its police and fire budgets and is auctioning three of its police helicopters on the Internet. Still, that’s not enough..

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When I talk to local government leaders here in the North Country, they repeat the same mantra:

This time, the public will feel it. We’ll feel it in significantly reduced services, or in higher taxes.

The first really painful cut may have already come. The Watertown Daily Times has been reporting on the likely closure of a nursing home in Alexandria Bay.

Mr. Moore said the state Medicaid rate has made it impossible for the hospital to keep the program. The cost to care for each person is $237 a day, but the state’s daily reimbursement rate for Medicaid in 2009 was only $155, [Chief Executive Ben] Moore said. Although the rate has gone up to $203 in 2010, he said, the hospital still would end up losing about $812,000 by the end of the year.

Twenty-seven residents and forty-four workers will have to make big changes. I’m guessing far more are on the way.